[KS] historical uses of the Korean term YO^BO

Theodore Hughes th2150 at columbia.edu
Mon Aug 10 11:36:04 EDT 2009


In the post-1945 camptown context, the term "yobo" used to refer to  
live-in Korean sex workers, often paid on a monthly basis in cash or  
black market profits (sometimes a combination of the two) to service  
U.S. military personnel.

Ted Hughes


Quoting dmccann at fas.harvard.edu:

> We know how it was used between spouses in the 1960's, yes?  Do we   
> know the song
> "Hey," by Julio Iglesia?  It just puts into song form what people do  
>  with that
> word when they wish to speak fondly to one-another.  We also know   
> how it can be
> used for quite the other way effect as well.  Probably the same effect, by
> extension, with the phrase "Hey you:" falling intonation, one thing; equal
> strong emphasis, something else entirely.  I noma: Boston pronoz for  
>  the former
> Red Sox player.  But I digress.
>
> DM
>
>
> Quoting Richardson <richardson at dprkstudies.org>:
>
>> All,
>>
>> I'm also interested in the use of "yobo" as a derogatory term for
>> Koreans as used by Japanese.  Currently reading "The Clan Records: Five
>> Stories of Korea" by Kajiyama Toshiyuki, I very recently ran across the
>> term in two of three chapters read so far.  Up to now I'd thought
>> perhaps the author had misremembered some phrase, but it seems not. From
>> page 12 of the book;
>>
>>     Despite the slogan "Japan and Korea Unified," the Japaneses scorned
>>     the Koreans.  Even Japanese children showed contempt, using
>>     expressions like /yobo/, which Koreans deeply resented.  A Koran
>>     word, /yobo/ originally meant "hello," but in the mouths of Japanese
>>     ti implied "you slave."
>>
>>
>> V/R,
>> Richardson
>>
>>
>> Todd Henry wrote:
>> > Dear all:
>> >
>> > I am currently completing an article on colonial racialization with a
>> > focus on how Japanese settlers and journalists appropriated the native
>> > term "yo^bo" to derogatorily refer to colonized Koreans, particularly
>> > lower class laborers.  I am also analyzing Korean critiques to this
>> > racialized usage of "yo^bo," but am not completely satisfied with the
>> > explanations they (the Korean critics) give as to the social etymology
>> > of this term.
>> >
>> > I would, therefore, be interested in any scholarship (or other
>> > information) that deals with how this term was used during the late
>> > Cho^son period and into the colonial period.  It would also interest
>> > me to hear more about post-liberation/colonial uses of "yo^bo" and if
>> > they had anything to do with the sort of derogatory usages I have been
>> > investigating from the colonial period.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance for your guidance and help.
>> >
>> > Todd A. Henry
>> >
>> > Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2008-9)
>> > Korea Institute, Harvard University
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Assistant Professor in Residence
>> > University of California-San Diego
>> > Department of History
>> >
>> > Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 3008
>> > 9500 Gilman Drive
>> > La Jolla, CA 92093-0104
>> >
>> > Phone: (858) 534-1996
>> > Email: tahenry at ucsd.edu <mailto:tahenry at ucsd.edu>
>> > Webpage: http://historyweb.ucsd.edu/
>> >
>>
> <https://mail.ucsd.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=2b030e9cd5804b7496e5a95e1f07afb0&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhistoryweb.ucsd.edu%2f>
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. Try Bing now.
>> >
>>
> <http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackToSchool_Cashback_BTSCashback_1x1>
>>
>
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-- 
Theodore Hughes
Assistant Professor of Modern Korean Literature
M.A. Program Coordinator
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Columbia University
407 Kent Hall
New York, NY 10027

Tel: (212) 854-8545
Fax: (212) 678-8629




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